All About Resizing Images in Photoshop CC

In the list of non-sexy Photoshop features, resizing might be right up near the top, but there are lots of cool things you can do and should definitely know about with regard to resizing images. This quick tutorial will take you from zero knowledge about resizing images and documents in Photoshop and walk through cropping, sized selections, and even changing the printed size of a document. You will learn a lot about resizing in this video! The image I used in this image: https://unsplash.com/photos/kiotxkttUj0

1. Resize with the Crop Tool

Grab the Crop tool (C) and look to the toolbar across the top of the screen and punch in the width and height of the newly cropped image and Photoshop will both crop and resize your image when you hit the little check icon.

2. Resize with the Rectangular Marquee Tool

Grab the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) and look to the top control bar and choose “Fixed Size” from the drop down menu and set a width and height. Click anywhere in your image and drag to place that selection wherever you want it to be. Go Image>Crop to crop and resize your image.

3. Image Resize Command

Go Image>Image Size to bring up the image size dialog box. This is the most powerful way to resize an image. You can use the “Fit to” drop down menu to choose a specific preset size to change the size of your image to fit within. We also have our main input fields below that which we can use to set a width and height for the image resizing. TIP: Click the little chain icon to make sure that you are scaling the image proportionally.

4. Resolution and Resampling with Image Size

The resolution input field allows us to change the target resolution of the image and affect the physical size of the image if we were to print it out right there from Photoshop. High resolution = smaller physical print, but greater/more crisp details the higher the resolution. (Most prints are at least 150 pixels per inch and typically max out around 300 pixels per inch.) Resampling is actually what controls whether or not we change the pixel size of the image. If we keep Resample checked on, we will alter the pixel width/height of the image, but if we shut Resample off, we can adjust the print size of the image via the resolution, but not alter the pixel dimensions of the image.

5. Facebook Perfect Width to Save Detail

Quick tip! Facebook loves images that have the magic width of 2048 pixels. Set your image to the width of 2048 and watch the quality of your Facebook images get a little better!

Be sure to watch the video at the top of this article tutorial for even more detail!

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Nathaniel Dodson: I am a young web designer and commercial photographer specializing in music, business, and athlete portraiture. I am a young and energetic individual who has been working in the design and creative field since I first started dabbling with Photoshop in year 2000.